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E. Dale Odom

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:

1999

Published online:

02 December 1999

Fink, Albert (27 October 1827–03 April 1897), railway engineer and executive, was born in Lauterbach, in what is now Germany, the son of Andres S. Fink, an architect, and Margaret Jacob. Albert studied architecture and engineering at the Darmstadt Politechnikum and graduated in 1848. Like many other young urban professionals, Fink left for the United States after the 1848 revolutions in central Europe. He settled in Baltimore and began work as an assistant in the engineering department of the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad. He also married, but his young wife died, childless, soon afterward. Fink advanced in the engineering department of the B&O and also became a consulting engineer for the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad. During his tenure at the Baltimore and Ohio, he invented and patented a bridge truss that brought him income for the remainder of his life....

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Article

C. M. Harris

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:

1999

Published online:

02 December 1999

Fulton, Robert (14 November 1765–23 February 1815), artist, engineer, and entrepreneur, was born on a farm in Little Britain (later Fulton) Township, south of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of Robert Fulton, a Scotch-Irish tailor and tradesman, and Mary Smith. Fulton’s father had left the prosperous market town of Lancaster to establish his family on the land, but like so many others with the same goal, he failed. The farm and the dwelling were sold at sheriff’s sale in 1772, and he took his family back to Lancaster. He died two years later....

Article

Keir B. Sterling

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:

1999

Published online:

02 December 1999

Haupt, Herman (26 March 1817–14 December 1905), railway engineer, inventor, author, and administrator, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Jacob Haupt, a businessman of modest attainments, and Anna Margaretta Wiall, the proprietor of a small dry goods store. Herman attended several private schools in Philadelphia, but in 1827 his father, suffering from poor health, gave up the grocery store he then owned and moved to Woodville, New Jersey. Jacob Haupt died the next year, leaving his widow in straitened circumstances; Herman, the eldest of six children, was only eleven years of age. Two years later Herman Haupt’s congressman, John B. Sterigere, offered to help the boy gain admission to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He received a presidential appointment in 1830, but his entry was deferred for a year because of his youth. Unhappy with the strict upbringing he had received from his father, he was very uncertain about subjecting himself to the hard discipline of the academy, but his mother prevailed....

Article

Samuel Willard Crompton

Article

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Published in print:

1999

Published online:

02 December 1999

Judah, Theodore Dehone (04 March 1826–02 November 1863), engineer and railroad promoter, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Henry R. Judah, an Episcopal clergyman (his mother’s name and occupation are unknown). The family moved to Troy, New York, where Judah attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He went to work as a surveyor’s assistant at thirteen and became a civil engineer by 1844. Judah erected a bridge at Vergennes, Vermont, and planned and built the Niagara Gorge Railroad, a task that amply demonstrated his ingenuity and skill. He married Anna Ferona Pierce of Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1847; the couple apparently had no children who lived to adulthood....

Article

William Alan Morrison

Article

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Published in print:

1999

Published online:

02 December 1999

Kneass, Strickland (29 July 1821–14 January 1884), civil engineer and railroad official, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of William Kneass, an artist and engraver, and Mary Turner Honeyman. Named in honor of architect and family friend William Strickland, Strickland Kneass completed his early education at Dr. ...

Article

Edward Hagerman

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:

1999

Published online:

02 December 1999

McCallum, Daniel Craig (21 January 1815–27 December 1878), engineer, builder, and railroad manager, was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, the son of a tailor, and emigrated as a child with his parents, whose names are unknown, to Rochester, New York. After an elementary school education he worked his way from carpenter and builder to become a distinguished architect and engineer. The date of his marriage to Mary McCann is unknown; they had three sons....

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